Time passed, after the night and Kuyeix's uneasy rest, and she was busy with preparations. The basilard's words repeated themselves in her mind, tumbling around and between her own discordant and uneasy thoughts. It wasn't until the sun had reached its zenith and started its descent that she ...

The frown was not intentional, but it boiled up from her curling toes, stretched her lips out, and bent her eyebrows in. "Compass," she said, feeling the wealth of her own authority settle around her shoulders like the weight of a proper blanket. "This is not what is needed."

But her words were ...

The answer. . .

Kuyeix stared at the blade for a long, quiet moment, expression set in contemplative lines before gradually shifting into a blank inscrutability. She moved her hands through what she'd collected, and seemed to shift focus entirely from her earlier line of inquiry with a simple ...

Her hands stilled for a brief, heart-thud moment. "You were raven?"

The bird caught and held Kuyeix's attention until it disappeared into the wild array of foliage, the brilliant green of its feathers nearly jewel-like against the green of the plants.

She paused, hesitated, took a step as if to continue along the shore, but then abruptly turned and started walking ...

Kuyeix didn't respond immediately, brow furrowing as she moved.

"You are... like me?" Her tone was probing, slyness mixing in with the wariness of her body language.

She stopped to look at the bird, and stiffened: there was too much life. Too many eyes. Too much possibility for mischief. Sleep ...

The blade had not told her whether or not Raven wanted her to make charms or not, but there were hints. Kuyeix hummed to herself, eyes narrowed as she continued her slow ambling pace down the beach, at once marveling at her surroundings and wary of them.

"You are of my side?" There was some sly ...

There was a reverence to the way Kuyeix handled the blade after her wrist partially shifted, and to the way she looked at it. A veil had been lifted, and it dawned clear behind her eyes. She smiled, certain that the Trickster had given her the privilege of this new game, this test. Maybe she wasn't ...

This was a trick. Raven might have taken the form of the dagger, might have been the dagger all along. Or, this was some scion of Raven, designed to act as Kuyeix's guide or damnation, to make her question the things she knew. Raven was not necessarily cruel, but He was capricious.

"As You will ...

Heat.

The air was thick with clouds of it, pushing against Kuyeix's skin with some heavy demand. It was as if she was inside a steam house, and for one dizzy moment she thought it must be so. She opened her eyes. A riot of colors assailed her, and as she breathed it matched the overwhelming stink ...

Watching, waiting, scheming. That was the life of a totem, picking and choosing moments to act beyond the quiet support given to moeity and, for her, Raven. She watched the threats that might claim Shiv, that might cause her to fail in her duty, and that was when she saw another piece of the puzzle ...

Five beads in total, each made of a different substance and binding a different charm. Kuyeix had so few charms left that she feared the use of these would prove a disastrous choice later, but she was not so certain of Raven's protection that she would risk her life now. Hah, if she failed Him she ...

"Tch." Kuyeix watched the projectile launch itself into the wood. " Tch , you are think I need your. . ." she gestured to the crossbow as he set it down, and watched him as he moved into place. "I am totem. I do not need your tricks. I have Raven's."

For the rest of his comments her only reward was ...

Lines deepened and stretched as Kuyeix looked at the strange contraption the impudent man shoved at her like it was a spear. It was not a spear. It was like nothing Kuyeix had ever seen before, or been asked to use. She could appreciate intricate contraptions, for certainly she knew her share of ...

Kuyeix snorted at Shiv. "You know nothing of what I do, so do not be putting your suspicion on my doings. What is this?" Kuyeix touched a finger to the crossbow with her free hand, even as she pulled a long string of beads on sinew out of her pouch. She wrapped it one handed around the opposite ...